


Whose Pokemon Is That: Dallas Edition

by Nadler



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Epistolary, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nadler/pseuds/Nadler
Summary: The Dallas Stars talk about their pokemon in this three-part Athletic article series.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 37





	1. First Pokemon

**Author's Note:**

> Pokemon AU. I did it. I have a list of pokemon, and now there's just stuff to write about them.

**Dallas Stars Talk First Pokemon**

DALLAS, TX -- To many, your first pokemon is a rite of passage. Everyone knows someone (or was someone) whose first pokemon was the family pidgey or a hand-me-down rattata from sibling. Being a professional pokemon trainer is a dream that most people never get to do, much like being a professional hockey player. But even I keep my zigzagoon on my belt, unless she's running around and muddying up my backyard. Not everyone keeps a pokemon, but almost everyone on the Stars does. 

So I asked them about their first pokemon.

"The first was probably a ponyta," Jamie Benn answers, after a moment of thought. Then he laughs when I ask the followup question. "Yeah, yeah, Jordie's ponyta. It liked him better. Maybe a weedle, if you don't count the ponyta."

"I was totally a caterpie kid," Jason Dickinson says. "Bug pokemon in my backyard." 

"I'm kind of a one-pokemon guy," Joe Pavelski says, his iconic braviary by his arm. The pokemon perches on a pane of glass during morning skate, but once he's off the ice, the braviary flies to him. "I'm pretty sure there's enough pictures of him as a half-molting rufflet somewhere. My parents gave him to me when I went to college." 

([And of course, everyone knows the story about how his rufflet evolved into a braviary at the Olympics.]())

"Is it cliché if I say a pidgey?" Tyler Seguin asks me. He takes a swig of what is presumably energy drink in an unmarked bottle. "But yeah, a pidgey. My sister has it now." 

"I had a cubchoo as a kid," Alexander Radulov recalls fondly. He tells me that his family ended up releasing the pokemon back into the wild, but he enjoyed the pokemon while he had it. "I caught her myself."

"I had a turtwig back home," Radek Faksa says. "It was a good turtwig." 

"My mom kept a garden, so my sister and I would catch combee and flabébé all the time. I never managed to catch a combee to evolve into a vespiquen." It's hard to imagine Jamie Oleksiak catching flabébé, but he follows up with, "Yeah, the pokeballs were definitely bigger than the pokemon." 

"A magnemite," Andrew Cogliano tells me. "It was my dad's." 

Miro Heiskanen grew up with two lillipup, but he says, "That's not really mine. I like them. But before [the] draft, I hatched [an] egg, and it's togepi." 

Heiskanen's togepi is quickly becoming a fan favorite in Dallas, particularly because fans have noticed that he has several different harnesses to carry his togepi. "Yeah, someone gave me a harness, and it's pretty nice to wear. So I keep getting more."


	2. Pokemon Training & Evolutions

**From Slowking to Ludicolo, the Dallas Stars Talk About Juggling Pokemon Training with Hockey**

FRISCO, TX -- Stars practice is not always a serious place. After the serious part of skating practice is over, the players unwind with drills and games, and today, there were pokemon on the ice. 

If you ever wanted to see a makuhita carefully make its way across the ice, this is the day. Mattias Janmark is right behind it, ready to put it back into its heal ball if needed. 

Do they make pokemon skates? Someone must. If not, they're missing out on a niche market. While the ice-types daintily pad (or roll, as the case may be) across the rink, the fire types have more trouble, but at least they don't anger the rink staff by melting through the ice. Some pokemon don't properly make it onto the ice, but the floating and flying pokemon who opted for the rafters make an appearance, too, for the camera. 

Ben Bishop's bisharp definitely makes it look easy, though it should be easy when you have built-in skates. 

Jason Dickinson's rockruff is absolutely dwarfed by Anton Khudobin's ludicolo, but the larger pokemon leads the rockruff, a magnemite, and a sandshrew in a dance.

The people in the stands watching, of course, are supposed to keep their pokemon contained, but no one is really bothered by a kid letting their caterpie ride their shoulder. 

There's the usual line of autographs and pictures, but there were quite a few more today with pokemon of all kinds. The most visible of the pokemon are Jamie Benn's slowking and Tyler Seguin's arcanine, often seen in pictures with fans. One is a very uncommon evolution of an unconventional pokemon, and one is the evolution of a very classic and beloved pokemon. 

Pokemon are like their people, they say, and I can't argue with that. Though where does a professional hockey player find the time to evolve a pokemon? 

"I love it when fans ask for a picture with my arcanine," Tyler Seguin says. "He's a real friendly guy, and I put a lot of work into getting him to evolve. It was mostly training in the summers, and I put in some time with a fire gym that would work with my schedule. We put in a regimen, and they helped decide when a fire stone was right." 

"My brother is a trainer, now," John Klingberg tells me. "My younger brother (Olle Klingberg) came back a couple of summers ago and said he was taking the courses, and he's finished faster than normal. We had a family hoppip, and he took it to a jumpluff last year. I asked for tips about my ivysaur but venusaur are pretty big, and I don't know if I'm ready for that." 

Alexander Radulov has his loudred out with him when I ask him. "Maybe," he says. He pats the loudred's head. "I have to buy more good headphones first."

Roope Hintz has his glaceon on the ice, most practices. While you can see jolteon and flareon just about everywhere, a glaceon is a pokemon that gets noticed in Texas. Eevee trainers have all the choice in the world. "We didn't use an stone," he says. "So I didn't decide. I was training him in the wild, and I guess it was--maybe--the right time and place." 

Esa Lindell came back last season with a charizard, which is an impressive feat on its own, even before putting into the rigors of a hockey schedule. 

"It wasn't that hard," Lindell insists. "It was something we'd been working towards for a while. Maybe three or four years of training when I had time, and we just had to keep doing it, of course."

Lindell goes into more detail. He trained at least once a week, even during the season, he made sure his charmeleon wasn't bored. He bought puzzles and toys. "It was easier when I found an obstacle course place. My apartment isn't big enough to set one up."

At home in Finland, fire-type pokemon often help with cooking fires and the traditional pastime: sauna. As a rookie, Lindell would volunteer his charmeleon for teammates' backyard saunas, and since the Stars have installed one sauna large enough for a charizard in their facilities, Lindell's charizard is not lacking in things to do.

Most others who are serious about training their pokemon have to follow similar schedules and wait for the right time for evolution. Others, like Denis Gurianov, need to make a choice with stones.

Gurianov has an alolan sandshrew. In talking to him, I learn that Russia is one of those places where they've had a lot of success importing and transplanting ice types, and that Gurianov is not sure if sandshrew are native to Russia. "I don't want to force evolution," he says. "I'll buy her [an] ice stone one day, but she has to run to it. Maybe we go find one ourselves." 

Anton Khudobin said the choice was easy. "I tell my pokemon: I make the NHL, I buy a water stone. He's real happy about it. He was a good lombre, but he's a very good ludicolo. Super happy, super fun." 

A great dancer, too, as we saw in practice.

Since slowpoke need a king's rock to evolve to a slowking, I ask Jamie how he made the decision.

"I don't know, actually," Jamie Benn offers, about his slowking. "I didn't do a lot with him. He followed me home, and I kept him. It's a boring way to get a pokemon, but I figure if he followed me, he wanted to be my bud. I went home to visit my parents one summer and took him out for a swim. And then he came out as a slowking, so I guess he must have found one.

"I think I might get him to talk next year. He has opinions on TV channels."


	3. Pokemon Battles

**Multi Battles in the Metroplex: Warming up with Pokemon **

DALLAS, TX -- A friendly game of pickup soccer is a league staple for warming up hockey players' bodies. 

Not everyone joins in. Hockey is about as mental as it is about the body. We know some players have their routines that don't include the communal game. Some players need their solitude to get in the right mindset.

There's a new routine, in Dallas. Multi Battles. Players have quick impromptu rounds of pokemon battles. 

"They're not real battles," Justin Dowling explains. "We do a Tag Battle and only until first hit. We usually get a couple of rounds in before warm-up skate." 

It's remarkably effective to shift to strategic thinking, he claims. The aim is to strike first and hit the opponent, and it goes very well with the hockey knowledge that scoring the first goal is very important. It sets the right kind of attitude for the game. 

"It doesn't get really heated, no," Dowling says. "It's all friendly."

There are a few concessions. 

Joe Pavelski and his braviary serve as the referees. They keep a few more potions on hand than in an ordinary first-aid kit, though the trained medical staff for every game also have potions for emergencies. "We don't want things going too far. We still have a hockey game to play, and you really can't play if you're worried about your pokemon.

"It's to first _hit_ only, and no moves strong enough to break anything down here. My guy's strong enough to usually break anything up." 

Pavelski's braviary preens at the praise. 

Also, the ice-type combo of Roope Hintz's glaceon and Denis Gurianov's sandshrew have apparently been banned for at least the rest of the season. 

"We're too good," Gurianov says, while nodding towards his sometimes-linemate and apparent Tag Battle partner. 

"They can't handle the cold," Hintz adds. "Not our fault. They kicked us out." 

John Klingberg has a different opinion. "We're tired of patches of ice where ice shouldn't be, and it messes up the warm up game." 

(The game with the soccer ball has many names: pickup, two-touch, Donkeyball. All of them have been heard around the locker room.) 

"They're allowed back in, just not with each other," Pavelski assures me. "Gotta branch out a little. I could make it a type rule, but it's not trouble with anyone else." 

"Pavs is basically commissioner of both the poker and pokemon stuff," Jamie Benn says. "I leave it to him. I join in, sometimes, but I don't bring out slowking for it every game." 

I ask who's the reigning Dallas Stars Pokemon Champion, and the answer is surprising. 

"Oh, it's gotta be Dicky (Jason Dickinson) and Riggy (Jamie Oleksiak). They've got small pokemon, so they're hard to hit, and they're fast, too."


End file.
